Knockdown shelf and cabinet structure



Jan. 6, 1953 w. D. BUTLER ET'AL 2,624,033

I KNOCKDOWN SHELF AND CABINET STRUCTURE Filed Jan. 24, 1949 I I q j i rl5 f0 3 :7 1 l 7 17- 1: 1:: 8 25-" 4 5 z I I 2o E I Q W 26 J1EEINVENTOR.

- WILLIAM o. BUTLER GRACE BUTLER, BY vg I 971% v AITORNEYS Patented Jan.6, 1953 UNITED STATES KNGCKDOWN SHELF AND CABINET STRUCTURE William D.Butler and Grace Butler, San Francisco, Calif.

4 Claims.

This. invention relates to shelf and cabinet structure, and particularlyto such structure that does notrequire the services of a skilled workmanin setting up or taking down the same.

l-lieretofore in houses and apartments, as well as elsewhere, the needarises for additional shelf or cabinet space. Most closets have aconsiderable amount of unused space, such as between an existing shelfand the'ceiling, or floor, or along one end or side. The fitting ofshelves or cabinets having drawers or compartments in these unusedspaces has heretofore'required the services of a carpenter or cabinetmaker, and once the installation is in place, it is permanent and cannotbe removed without injury to the building.

One of the objects of the present invention is the provision of means toenable a person to set up any desired number of shelves, drawers, orcabinets, or combination thereof, in any desired space at little costmore than that of the actual lumber used, and which shelf or cabinetstructure may be quickly installed and may be added to or reduced insize, as desired, by the user or completely knocked down to a flat,compact kit or pile of flat pieces without requiring the services of askilled workman and without injury to the building in which theinstallation is made.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the description and in thedrawings.

In the drawings,

Fig.1 is an isometric'view of a shelf and pair 'of'gsupportingend'pieces connected by separate members'at each of the corners of theshelf, and a fragment of apair of upper end pieces are indicated abovethe shelf at its ends showing how the connecting members are adapted toposition thesaid upper end pieces when the latter are lowered onto theends of the shelves.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged isometric view of one of the corner members.

Fig. 3 is a slightly reduced isometric view of a form of corner memberthat is slightly different from that of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an isometric view of the corner member of Fig. 2'as seen froma different angle.

Fig. 5 is an isometric view of a tier of shelves in which a drawer andcabinet are included for showing different adaptations of the invention.

In detail, in Fig. 1 a rectangular shelf l is shown, which shelf issupported at its ends on theupper edges of vertical opposed, rectangularend piecesl.

It is to be noted that the shell I and end pieces 2 are of the samedepth and thickness. They may be, and many times are, cut from the sameboard.

Assuming one or more shelves are to be positioned at one end of a closetso as to fit between two of the side walls of the closet and against theend wall, the housewife, or whoever is making the installation willfirst measure the distance between the opposed side walls, whichdistance will be substantially the length of the shelf or of board I.The distance between shelves or the height of the shelf above the flooror above an existing shelf will be the height of the end boards or endpieces 2. If boards of the desired length corresponding to themeasurements taken are not in stock, it requires only a saw to cut theboards to such length, and even this is usually done by the supplier,and not the person installing the shelves.

After obtaining the boards, the person installing the, shelves positionsthe shelf l on top of said end pieces so that the ends of the shelf reston the upper edges of the end pieces. Special corner pieces 3 are thenslipped over the upper corners of the end pieces and the adjacentcorners of the shelf for connecting the shelf and end pieces.

Each of said corner pieces comprises a pair of channel portions 5 thatextend at right angles to each other, the portion 4 extendinghorizontally and opening laterally to receive therein an edge of theshelf I at one of its corners, while the portion 5 extends verticallyand opens laterally to receive the edge of end piece 2 at its upper end.

The bottom or web a of each channel portion 4 thus extends across and inengagement with one end of one edge of the shelf that extends betweenthe end pieces, while the bottom or web 1 of the channel portion 5 ofeach member extends over one of the vertical edges of each end piece atthe upper end of the latter.

The opposed sides 8, 9 of the channel portion a extend over the upperand lower sides respectively, of shelf l at its corners, and opposedsides IE, it of the channel portion 5 extend over the outer end innersides respectively, of each end piece at each corner thereof.

From the foregoing structure, it is seen that each member 3substantially comprises a corner member formed with a right angleoutwardly opening recess in which the edges of the shelf and end piecesare received at each of their adjacent corners.

The bottoms or webs 6, I of each of the legs or channel portions 4, ofthe corner pieces may be formed with one or more openings I5 (Fig. 2)for nails or screws I6 (Fig. 1) that are adapted to extend through thesame and into the shelf and end pieces.

The use of nails and screws is not absolutely necessary where the shelfI fits between the opposed side walls of a closet. Their principal usein any event is to hold the corner pieces in position against possibleaccidental separation from the shelf and end pieces.

In most instances, it is desirable to use more than one shelf. As seenin Fig. 1, it is only necessary to position other end pieces I1correspond ing with end pieces 2 on top of the ends of the shelf I, andthen another shelf corresponding to shelf I may be supported at its endson the upper edges of end pieces I! in exactly the same manner thatshelf I is on end pieces 2. Corner pieces 3 are again used to hold suchupper shelf on end pieces II.

In installing the shelves in a closet, or in any desired position, it issometimes found best to position each section (shelf and two end piecesbelow the ends) in the desired location before adding the uppersections, although there is no reason why a tier of a plurality ofshelves could not be bodily moved into the desired location after beingassembled at a point away from the latter.

In order to insure I 1 properly above a of channel portions positioningof the end pieces lower shelf, the upper sides 8 4 may have a section 20cut away from the corner or juncture between the channel sections adistance substantially equal to the thickness of the respective endpieces, and then said section 29 is bent upwardly at right angles to theremainder of the channel section 4. Thus, end pieces II will restdirectly on the shelf I along the entire lower edges of the end piecesand the projections 2c will engage the inner opposed sides of the endpieces I"! adjacent their lower corners.

In Fig. 5, all of the end pieces below the uppermost ones are designatedby the numeral 2, although it is obvious that in each adjacentsuperposed pair one will be above the other. In each instance theshelves or partitions are identified by the numeral I.

As seen in Fig. 5, where there is no occasion for adding another shelf,the uppermost corner members, generally designated 2| in Fig. 5, do notrequire the projections 29; therefore said projections may be bent downso as to be coplanar with the side 8 of the channel portion 4. Where theprojection 26} is up at right angles to side 8, it will be seen that itis substantially coplanar with the side I I of the channel portion 5(Fig. 4)

Where the opposed walls of a closet or recess in a wall are closeagainst the end members of the shelf assembly, the said walls willprevent any outward movement of the lower ends of said end members.Where the shelf assembly is not between such walls, the vertical side Idof the channe1 portion 5 may be extended upwardly to opposedrelationship to projection 2%], as seen at 23 in Fig. 3. By thisarrangement, the lower ends of the end pieces will be held betweenprojections 23, 23 against movement to one side or the other. With thecorner pieces of the construction shown in Fig. 3, the tabs orprojections 23, 23 provide means for positively positioning a verticallydisposed board or a horizontally elongated piece between saidprojections projecting oppositely outwardly therefrom and coplanar witha piece secured in the vertical channel portion therebelow, whileanother piece may be positioned in the horizontal channel portion havingsides 8, 9. Thus a builder may employ quite a long piece extendingbetween projections 20, 23 and between similar projections on othersimilar corner pieces, whereby such long piece will be enabled to tiethe remaining structure together, a result that is impossible withconventional corner members that merely have channel portions extendingat right angles to each other. It is also pertinent to note that thestructure of Figs. 2, 3 enables a piece to extend oppositely outwardlyof the ends of the frame members in the channel portions and away fromthe channel having sides II), II and between projections 20, 23 (Fig. 3)or alongside projection 20 (Fig. 2) if and when desired.

Instead of nailing or screwing the corner members to the shelves and endmembers by nails or screws in openings I5, the bottoms or webs 6, 1 ofthe channel portions 4, 5 may be formed with sharpened, inwardlyprojecting elements 24 stamped from the bottoms 6, I adjacent theirouter open ends. These elements may readily be driven into the edges ofthe shelf and end piece and will function to hold the corner member tosaid shelf and end piece. Also, said projections will hold the shelfrigid with the end pieces so that there can be no relative movementbetween them.

In Fig. 5 several of a considerable number of adaptations are shown. Inthis adaptation, the upper shelf I forms the top of the assembly, andthe next to the top shelf forms the bottom of a compartment in which adrawer 25 is adapted to slide. If the drawer is out, the shelf stillremains for use.

The lowermost shelf may be on a relatively low base 26 and saidlowermost shelf forms the bottom of a cabinet in which swinging doors 2!may be easily installed to close the front side.

Obviously no drawers or doors may be used, or the assembly may have alldoors or drawers between adjacent pairs of shelves, or any desiredcombination other than that shown may be made.

A single pair of spaced form a sort of box with an open front side, andthe wall against which the shelves are positioned will close the rearside. Any combined means (not shown) may be used to close the rear side,such as a panel, if so desired, the same being nailed or screwed to theshelves or end pieces, or both.

It is not intended that the invention be restricted to the exactarrangements shown in the drawings. The drawings are merely illustrativeof preferred structure.

From a structural standpoint, it will be seen that economy is eifectedin using shelves and end pieces of the same thickness and width. Thus,any sections that may be out off the shelves to accommodate the shelvesto a, particular place may possibly be used as end pieces in otherinstallations. The supplier of shelves merely needs to have the simpleand economically made channel section and pieces of lumber of the samethickness and width. With these, any shelf assembly can be easilyeffected.

We claim:

1. A corner member comprising a pair of jointed laterally openingchannel portions extending at a substantial angle to each other andhaving coplanar webs integrally joined at the shelves would clearlyadjacent ends of said portions, said respective portions having spacedopposed sidewalls extending laterally from said webs to the same side,one portion or said pair extending generally horizontally and the otherportion of said pair extending generally vertically from one end of saidone portion whereby each portion has an inner side wall defining theinner sides of the angle formed by said portions and an outer side walldefining the outer sides of said angle, a pair of flat, spaced, opposedprojections formed integrally with the outer side walls of said portionsat their adjacent ends and projecting outwardly of said outer side wallsat their juncture, said projections being respectively coplanar with theinner and outer side walls of said other portion of said pair forreceiving a frame member therebetween extending across the juncturebetween said webs and oppositely outwardly of said portions and saidportions each being adapted to receive a frame member therein inadjoining relation at the adjacent ends of said portions and at an angleto each other corresponding to the angle between said portions.

2. The combination of horizontal and vertical members and a cornermember positioning and securing said horizontal and vertical memberstogether comprising a pair of channel portions extending at right anglesto each other and integrally joined at their ends, one of said channelportions being fitted over a portion of said vertical member and theother of said channel portions being fitted over a portion of saidhorizontal member, a pair of spalced tabs being formed on said cornermember, one of said tabs being an elongation of the outer side wall ofsaid first mentioned channel portions and the other of said tabs beingformed on the upper side wall of the other charmel portion whereby anadditional member being secured by said corner member will engage saidtabs and project past the lateral edges thereof in both directions andat substantially right angles to each of said horizontal and verticalmembers.

3. A corner member for positioning and securing together horizontal andvertical members comprising a pair of channel portions extending atright angles to each other and integrally joined at their adjacent ends,one of said channel portions fitting over a portion of said verticalmemher, and the other of said channel portions fitting over a portion ofsaid horizontal member, and a projection on said last mentioned channelportion extending upwardly to provide an upstanding tab adjacent thejuncture between said channel portions parallel with one side of saidfirst mentioned portion and coplanar with the other side of said firstmentioned channel portion whereby an additional member being secured bysaid corner member will engage said tab and project past the lateraledges thereof in both directions and at substantially right angles toeach of said horizontal and vertical members.

4. A corner member for positioning and securing together horizontal andvertical members comprising a pair of channel portions extending atright angles to each other and integrally joined at their adjacent ends,one of said channel portions fitting over a portion. of said verticalmember, and the other of said channel portions fitting IOVGI' a portionof said horizontal member, a pair of flat spaced opposed projections onsaid last mentioned channel portion extending upwardly to provideupstanding tabs adjacent the juncture between said channel portions andparallel with the sides or said first mentioned channel portion, saidtabs being respectively coplanar with the inner and outer sides of saidfirst mentioned channel portion whereby an additional member beingsecured by said corner member will engage said tabs and project past thelateral edges thereof in both directions and at substantially rightangles to each of said horizontal and vertical members.

WILLIAM D. BUTLER. GRACE BUTLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

